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Controllers that work well with CachyOS?
Pretty much the title. I want to move away from OEM 1st party controllers due to quality and inevitable joystick drift. I have an 8bitdo Ultimate, but it's not working for me on CachyOS.
Anyone else have experience with good quality controllers on Linux? The Flydigi Vader Pro 5 caught my attention, and I am a pretty competitive person for certain games (mainly Halo 3 and Halo Infinite), and like tight controls for platformers and souls-like games as well.
Edit: I primarily used my controllers wireless, especially on the living room PC. I am more okay with wired on my personal computer.
I use an 8BitDo Ultimate as well, the Switch Pro-like model, on EndeavourOS and I've not been experiencing any issues (the configuration tool is Windows-only afaik but I just configure it on Windows when I need to), so this seems odd to me.
Which mode are you using? When used on a computer, the 2.4GHz mode presents the controller as a standard XInput controller while the Bluetooth mode presents it as a Switch Pro controller using DInput. Normally, drivers for both modes should be part of the kernel, but maybe the mode you're using impacts something somehow.
(PS: I had heard the name CachyOS but did not know it was an Arch derivative with an installer. What do you like about it? I'm curious.)
I exclusively used 2.4 Ghz on Windows when using the 8bitdo.
I am probably one of the least qualified people to answer this question from a technical perspective, I just like to tinker with different things. Mainly, wanted to migrate away from Windows, googled what are some performant Linux distributions, saw that CachyOS was gaining traction on YouTube/Reddit, and gave it a ago. Works great (other than the controller scenario), feels snappy (especially boot times) and I guess it feels good to have a bit of digital privacy.
I use an 8bitdo Ultimate (wired, though, specifically) on Kubuntu 22.04, but I did have to wrestle with it a bit to get it to work, IIRC. It's currently using the xone driver and works perfectly for me using that.
I've so far, never had a solid experience on Linux using wireless controllers, which is specifically why I use this wired model actually. Previous controllers I've had were more consistent in wired mode too.
Maybe there are wireless ones that work consistently, but I don't mind wires so I decided to abandon the convenience. Generally with wireless I've had pairing problems, problems keeping it paired, and latency / choppiness / freezing problems even once paired successfully.
That is slightly disappointing to hear. I've always read that controllers have been a strong point of Linux in terms of compatibility (including wireless, unless I was reading incorrectly), sucks that that may not be the case anymore.
It is ironic to me that the Xbox controllers has been the most seamless to use so far.
Yeah my Xbox controller with PC dongle works better on Linux than Windows. But the controller and dongle is overpriced. And I struggle to return to controllers without back buttons after the deck.
I'm curious if ANY controller gets good rumble support in Linux though. The Deck's fake rumble rarely triggers. The Xbox controller passes the utility test fine, the call just doesn't seem to make it from most games.
Rumble is working fine for me with 3rd party PS4 style controllers over Bluetooth. Using whatever Steam implements for it.
I wonder if it's a difference in our game selection then, I do play a lot of random indie games. I've tried a couple different controllers and drivers, they pass
fftestbut won't activate in game. I should have a PS4 controller around here, maybe I should compare their fftest results and a game I know has working rumble.My wireless 8bitdo Ultimate is usually used as the controller for when I dock my Steam Deck to the TV and I've had no issues with the rumble. My wife was playing Hollow Knight on it the other day and in a section of the game that rumbles a lot she was complaining that it was rumbling too much, but that's a design decision in the game. I'm curious where your controllers don't work.
I've not used CachyOS, but I do use Arch and own both a wireless Xbox layout 8bitdo Ultimate and a wired Xbox 360 controller. I tested both in the following scenarios:
I tested the Xbox controller wired, the 8bitdo with the wireless USB dongle, and the 8bitdo on Bluetooth. All controller configurations yielded the same results: working perfectly for 1 and 2 and not working for 3. Not working on 3 is expected because I didn't do anything to attempt to expose the controller to the container, but I got curious and tested it anyway.
So unfortunately these results don't seem likely to be particularly helpful for you. At best it indicates that the problem is probably not due to a lack of support in the Arch upstream since I never went out of my way to deliberately install any controller fixes. I'm not quite motivated enough to replicate my testing in a fresh install of Arch though so it is possible that Steam or something has triggered a system-wide fix.
I would be interested to hear more about your testing though. Presumably it doesn't show up in hardware testers like https://hardwaretester.com/gamepad? If you have any wired gamepads, do any of them? Is your test application being launched natively, through Steam, explicitly through WINE, etc.?
I'd also be willing to supply my personal test application, but if I were you I probably wouldn't use it simply because I generally wouldn't just run some executable a random person on a forum sent me. If you decide you want to trust me I'll send it anyway. The application is a playground application I had laying around for learning mesh shaders that I just quickly slapped some gamepad event handling in to. You're probably better off just testing some game that you're sure has native Linux support in its place though.
I don't have much to add, but wanted to somewhat unhelpfully second something close to zestier's situation. That is, using an 8BitDo Pro 2 wirelessly (USB dongle) in "X" mode on Arch without issues or memory of explicitly doing anything to make it work. I've mostly used it for games launched through Steam.
Wired or wireless? From what I have found most wired controllers should mostly work and I see several instances of people reporting that this exact controller works for them without issue. Though since CachyOS seems to be based on arch it might be a bit more involved for you?
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I use it wireless.
Just to confirm, are you gaming with Steam? Meaning the cachyos-gaming-meta package is installed. I am using Bazzite myself, but CachyOS should be more compatible since it has a newer kernel.
Honestly, any bluetooth PS4 knockoff should work very well. Being the 2nd most common style of controller means it's going to be compatible out of the box with more games. I have found them to be much better than Xbox controllers. Microsoft pulled to many changes with the wired vs. dongle vs. bluetooth models and it made it hard to tell what you're getting. I personally have the TOPAD Go2fun controllers, but they don't seem to be available any longer.
Selling points for one brand over another would be hall effect joysticks, and increased mAh. That said, if you're getting a 3rd party controller, you're taking a chance on actually getting what you order with these features. If you go this route, I recommend ordering just 1 to start from Amazon or another seller with easy returns, then order more of the exact same one from the same seller if you want to have more for multiplayer.
That is correct, I am gaming with steam and the cachyos-gaming-meta package is installed.
Not sure what you mean by this - are you saying that 3rd parties lie about features of their controllers? I typically wait for reviews before buying any product.
Yes, that's exactly what I mean. The "no name" brands that you can find on Amazon will often have false information in their listings. Everything from SSDs and USB sticks that are flashed to appear larger than they actually are, Android Auto head units that report Android 15 but are just Android 10 with edited info, to battery powered devices that say they have 1500mAh but actually have far less capacity.
If you stick with a reputable brand like 8bitdo you're safe, but any names you can't pronounce could be dubious.
I use an 8bitdo Pro 2 and it works both Wired and Bluetooth without any additional configuration or drivers. I leave it in "X" mode and it shows up as both an SDL and evdev device in Fedora.
I just add everything as a non steam game and let steam input handle it. Getting big picture overlay to work sometimes takes a little fiddling (looking at you, Dolphin Emu) but it usually all just works.
I'm not even able to navigate through big picture mode with the controller though. It seems to connect (I get a notification that it does) but it just remains unresponsive.
It has been a minute, but you may need to go into steam controller settings and explicitly opt in for generic/switch/Playstation controller support.
Edit: arch wiki link + snippet